As the Supreme Court wrapped up its nail-biting deliberations on marriage equality, where were the children? With Justice Kennedy, it turned out. Although he remains conflicted, he went straight to the heart of the matter: "There are some 40,000 children in California," he said, who "live with same-sex parents, and...

On Feb. 12, in his State of the Union address, President Obama declared his intention "to make high-quality preschool available to every child in America." The impact was immediate and explosive. "Universal preschool" has not fallen from the lips of any U.S. president in the past...

Preschool is back in the news in New York. Just recently, on the recommendation of his Education Reform Commission, Andrew Cuomo placed squarely on his agenda increased access to high-quality full-day pre-kindergarten for students in highest needs school districts. A win, if bittersweet, for...

I recently time-traveled with Peter Edelman, who resigned from the Clinton Administration in protest against the 1996 legislation that ended "welfare as we know it." Citing all the social justice luminaries of the past century -- including his wife, the Children's Defense Fund founder and CEO -- he brought his...

Two weeks ago, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott announced that Educare would be coming to Brooklyn next fall. A birth-to-five program that serves at-risk kids, it's become the darling of politicos from Obama on down, not to mention billionaire philanthropist...

Education's been missing in action in this frenzied political season. In a scan of the words most frequently mentioned at the Republican convention, "work" (247)," business" (237) and "jobs" (220) topped the list. At the Democrats' convocation, education came in at 124, topping "war"...

President Obama's commencement address at Barnard College this May is the latest salvo in the offensive against the Republicans in their "war on women." The alumnae of my alma mater are in a tizzy, as is Columbia, jealous of the women's college across the street for scoring this...

Last week, as New York City's teachers were wrapping up their mid-winter recess, the NYC Department of Education set off a bomb. Lifting an embargo on the publication of Teacher Data Reports, which rate teachers on the basis of their students' test scores, the DOE left a significant slice of...

On the eve of the Florida primary, as Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney battled it out, the New York Times offered up "Years of Despair Add to Uncertainty in Florida Race." Among the afflicted, leading the pack, was a preschool teacher. With her home in foreclosure,...

"Jobs, jobs, jobs" is the Governor's mantra, the take-away from his State of the State. And who can blame him? New York, like the rest of the nation, is hurting, and pain relief is a must -- especially for a state CEO with presidential aspirations. Road work, casinos,...

Finland is the mecca of education reformers across the globe. Just before we all gorged on our turkeys and stuffing, Michael Mulgrew, head of the United Federation of Teachers, turned down an invitation for a free, but politically imprudent, pilgrimage from Manhattan Media CEO and mayoral hopeful...

It's been a stellar couple of weeks for the U.S. Department of Education. And how often do we get to use that adjective for an agency ever under the gun?

On October 19, the DOE welcomed applications from 35 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico...

The day after NBC's Education Nation summit, former NYC school chancellor Harold Levy weighed in on our national conversation about education, on display, for millions, at the broadcaster's annual extravaganza. "Irrelevant and quaint," he declared, lambasting a panel of ten of the nation's governors...

Over the weekend, at the wedding of a mutual friend, I reconnected with a Berkeley-based nurse practitioner, whose line of work is obstetrics and gynecology. After the usual pleasantries, we got down to the business of early care and education. She, channeling all the conflicts, ambivalence, and frustrations of young...

Last month, amid a flurry of natural disasters, the Brookings Institution and Rockefeller Foundation dumped a dangerous proposal on the overworked, underpaid, unrespected early childhood workforce. In "Beyond Bachelor's: The Case for Charter Colleges of Early Childhood Education," Sara Mead and Kevin Carey bring the K-12 charter school...

As Father's Day disappeared into Monday morning, the Times Union of Albany posted a positively eloquent editorial. "Still failing after all these years" highlights New York's persistent achievement gap, declaring it "as insidious as if it was the result of outright bigotry or class warfare" and lambasting...

It's been a tough few days for education reform. Just when you thought it couldn't get worse, we've ascended to new heights of desperation.

Flying home from Kenyon College, from which my daughter just received her B.A., with Martha Nussbaum's remarks about pluralism, democracy and the value of a...

On the subject of education reform, everyone has some advice for the United States. And in the wake of our 15-year-olds' lousy PISA scores, the choir has grown louder.

Since the results of the international survey were released last December -- you remember, our teens were...

Google "Teacher Evaluation and Student Performance" and 827,000 entries spring up in the queue; do the same for "Teacher Effectiveness" and the number plummets to 84,300. Such a gap, and so revealing. Teacher effectiveness has become the Holy Grail for the modern education reform movement, one of whose faithful adherents,...

Dennis M. Walcott is the New York Times' Man in the News, the blogosphere is buzzing, and the shock waves are reverberating across the pond, in the U.K., where the Guardian proclaims Cathie Black's departure as "only a temporary setback for the 'corporate' reform of public...